#MeToo: Rosario Dawson Says She Was ‘Raped And Molested As A Child’

"It happens with people that are supposed to take care of you when you’re a child.”

With the #MeToo and #Times Up Movement have created safe spaces for women to share their own experiences with sexual assault and harassment, Rosario Dawson is bravely sharing her story too.

In a recent interview with the podcast, Morado Lens, the 38-year-old actress revealed that she was “raped and molested as a child.”

The reveal came while discussing sexual harassment, when Dawson admitted that her past childhood trauma shaped her expectations for misconduct in the workplace.

“I was raped and molested as a child, so for me, the world was like that since I was a child,” she shared with hosts Cindy Rodriguez and Nathalie Farfan, last week.

“So when I saw it in the workplace, it wasn’t foreign to me. It was like, well, that even happens within [families]. It happens with people that are supposed to take care of you when you’re a child.”

She didn’t go into detail about who assaulted her or how many times it happened.

Dawson also opened up about finding her 26-year-old cousin Vaneza Ines Vasquez unresponsive in her Venice home last year and how her death changed the way she looked at her own life.

“When Vaneza died, it was like, oh my God, regardless of how well I’ve spent these years, I’ve already got 12 more years of life than Vaneza will ever have,” she explained. “And I think what it really did was give me back my gratitude.”

She added, “Whenever my moment comes, I wanna know that it’s been a good life. I don’t wanna be marinated in the upset ― because I have a lot of trauma and sadness to dwell on if I want to ― but there’s so much beauty and so many things to be grateful for. And I don’t want to waste my time not being dedicated to that.”

Listen to the entire interview here:

Dawson isn’t the only woman of color speaking their truth about being assaulted.

“I don’t know this person. He didn’t introduce himself. There was no, ‘Hi, how are you doing?’ And I was asleep before the plane even took off; I’m one of those sleepers,” The Quad actress explained to SiriusXM’s Make It Plain show.

“That engine started and I’m like a baby in car. I’m out. He ruined it. Ruined it.”

The stranger’s assault “woke” Rose up, so she alerted the airline’s crew.

“We turned that plane around,” she said. “I was offered that option in the beginning, and I said no, because it seemed like the person was then going to go to sleep. I felt like, ‘Maybe he’s chilling.’ I told the steward and stewardess, ‘I just want you to keep an eye on this person. I just want you to know that this is happening.’ And then he said some things that were so out of the box, that I was like, ‘Let’s stop the plane.’ But at that point, the plane was…We had left late. We were starting to take off late. I didn’t know who had connections somewhere else, who was trying to get somewhere important, so I was like, ‘It’s a short flight. Just pay attention to him. Let’s just keep it moving.’”

It takes bravery to share these types of stories with the public, so thank you Rosario and Anika!